[toussaints]

The Big East made a huge mistake when they focused on trying to keep their football conference as an AQ in the BCS. Those attempts not only failed, but it has hurt their once super strong basketball conference with the loss of Syracuse, Louisville, and Pitt.

Now, the Catholic Big East basketball members are teaming together to get out of the Big East and join the... Atlantic 10. The A10 is open to expansion and many people around the country believe the A10 has surpased the Pac12 as a basketball conference power, and good chunk think it's better than the SEC as a basketball conference. If the schools join the A10, this is what some of the conference would look like.

Xavier, Dayton, Butler, Richmond, VCU, St. Louis, Marquette, Georgetown, Villanova, St. John's, Providence, DePaul, and Seton Hall.

If the Big East schools leave, they won't have that safety net of making the NCAA tournament being in a mid major conference, however, the A10 just signed a very lucrative TV deal and may even challenge the NCAA for major conference status.

Should these schools bolt the Small East?

[LWC]

I would bolt because, 1, it will be a little easier to win. 2, if those join it should become an auto-qualifier.

[dangerousdaneerfan]

The Big East made a huge mistake when they focused on trying to keep their football conference as an AQ in the BCS. Those attempts not only failed, but it has hurt their once super strong basketball conference with the loss of Syracuse, Louisville, and Pitt.

Now, the Catholic Big East basketball members are teaming together to get out of the Big East and join the... Atlantic 10. The A10 is open to expansion and many people around the country believe the A10 has surpased the Pac12 as a basketball conference power, and good chunk think it's better than the SEC as a basketball conference. If the schools join the A10, this is what some of the conference would look like.

Xavier, Dayton, Butler, Richmond, VCU, St. Louis, Marquette, Georgetown, Villanova, St. John's, Providence, DePaul, and Seton Hall.

If the Big East schools leave, they won't have that safety net of making the NCAA tournament being in a mid major conference, however, the A10 just signed a very lucrative TV deal and may even challenge the NCAA for major conference status.

Should these schools bolt the Small East?

The football schools have cowtowed to the basketball schools for far too long. 10 years ago, Providence should have told Notre Dame to fish our cut bait and Miami, VPI, and BC would not have jumped ship.

[RunItUpTheGut]

I would.

[Norm Peterson]

That would be a pretty nice basketball conference. It would be better than the current PAC 12 and SEC. I think you'd see 3-5 NCAA bids yearly out of that group. The addition of those schools would immediately make them a major conference in basketball. The A-10 already had an automatic bid to the NCAA Tourney and frequently got multiple bids. This would all but assure it of getting multiple bids each season.

[Real Badman]

Loss of major funds from the big east.